


The PhD survival guide

by Thrandolawlu



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Not Related, Everyone Is Alive, Fluff and Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29019201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thrandolawlu/pseuds/Thrandolawlu
Summary: Fingon decides to start a journal on the first day of his PhD.This series will follow his daily life as he falls in love, struggles with science and does an incredible amount of questionable things.
Relationships: Fingon | Findekáno/Maedhros | Maitimo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is written in a journal format using Fingon's POV.  
> In this AU none of the Noldorians are related but they are part of different teams in the same institute.
> 
> Please let me know on the comments if you like this work and want more!  
> I will try to update often.
> 
> I don't own the Silmarillion or any of the characters.
> 
> I was inspired to write a journal style fic by reading the fic "Elladan's Biograph Script" which I really recommend.  
>  **  
> [Elladan's Biograph Script](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3831897/chapters/8547174)  
>  **

**January 4th**

Today is the first day of my PhD at Noldorian Institute of Science and Technology (BIST). I will be joining the Fingolfin Lab to work on project ‘Rochallor’. For the next three years I will conduct studies on equine stem cells in the hope of finding clinical applications. Besides my supervisor, Fingolfin, there are three other team members, Turgon, Aredhel and Argon. They look like fun so I hope we can become friends.

My first day is over, it was quite busy… There was an overwhelming amount of information that I need to remember if I am to survive during these three years. And my reading list is huge! I feel like I will spend most of my first week sitting at my desk reading... I can’t wait to get on the bench and start my experiments…

Anyway, in the evening we went to have some beers at Hithlum, a bar near the lab. My team came up with a nickname for me, from now on they will call me Findekáno. Apparently, having your team call you by a nickname is the trendy thing at NIST. So from now on I have to call my supervisor Nolofinwe; Turgon, Turukano; Aredhel, Irisse and Argon, Arakano. As if it wasn’t confusing enough to remember everyone’s names…

**January 22nd**

My third week is finally over, I kind of remember where the different facilities are located and started meeting people from other labs. On our floor there are three teams, Irime’s, Finarfin’s, and ours. On the top floor there are two, Feanor’s and Findis’. I haven’t been to that floor yet but that’s where the culture room is so I know I will be spending a lot of time there.

These past weeks I spent all of my days reading, well... I can’t really say all my day...

To be honest I have been having some fun too… There is actually an Among Us tournament at NIST and they play daily games… It’s super intense because of how competitive people are and there is a rumor that _everyone_ plays, even the institute’s director Finwe… As I am quite new to this game, I have to practice a lot… So, I am ashamed to say that I have spent an abnormal amount of hours practicing with my team… I mean I have to keep up so it’s totally necessary!

Arakano is the best of our team but I suspect that is because he is glued to the game 24/7… Today I went to the toilet and he was using the urinal while playing... When he manages to do his work is a mystery...

Otherwise, it has become our tradition to go to Hithlum for drinks every wednesday. Happy hour starts at 4pm so we leave the lab at 3:30pm. It seems like drawing your sorrows in beer is a very important part of a PhD. Almost all of the PhD students of NIST can be found there. I’ve grown quite fond of the Oumpf beer, it has a dwarf with a red hat on the label and I can’t stop at just one pint... or two… or a pitcher...

**January 26th**

Today was the worst day ever! I was making my way to the culture room where Turukano was waiting for me but I took the wrong staircase and ended up in Fëanor’s lab. As I was trying to find my way I walked into someone and ELBERETH… He was the most handsome man I had ever seen! His face was framed by long strands of coppery hair and his eyes… His eyes were grey like a cloudy sky… I couldn’t help but stare into those silver orbs…

I am sure I must have spaced out because he suddenly grabbed me by the arm and asked if I was okay. And then what happens?!?! Oh Elbereth... just thinking about it makes me want to die of shame… Instead of acting like a normal person and excusing myself I just continued staring into his eyes… I couldn’t think about anything else but the feeling of his hand on my arm… His grip strong, yet gentle... The feeling of his warm skin through my clothes… Those eyes...

Okay I spaced out again… Where was I?...

Ah yes! Thankfully Turukano came out into the corridor at that moment and I just ran towards him without saying anything to the redhead.

Oh Elbereth... Why?!

Why did I have to make such an ass of myself?! Why couldn’t I just talk to him like a normal person and say “Sorry”. It’s just one word, it shouldn’t be that hard!! Maybe now he thinks I am a psychopath…

After that things got even worse…

In the culture room I couldn’t concentrate, I kept thinking about the guy so I made so many stupid mistakes. Turukano was so angry with me… hopefully I didn’t ruin any of his experiments but he told me he wouldn’t help me anymore and left me to clean up the mess. The only good thing was that by the time I came back to my desk, only Irisse was left, so I asked her to tell me everything about the hot redhead.

His name is Maedhros... Maedhros... Mae… I love the sound of that name!

She also told me that he is a last year PhD student in Feanor’s Lab. He is doing research as part of the ‘Silmaril’ project and is working on identifying the molecules that generate light in the silima cells.

Oh Elbereth, what am I going to do when I see him again? I hope I will have a chance to show him that I am a perfectly functioning human being!!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this AU when thinking about Alqualonde and Tol Eressea you should picture Greece.
> 
> Heculo: outcast in Telerin
> 
> Fingolfin: Nolofinwe  
> Turgon: Turukano  
> Argon: Arakano  
> Maedhros: Maitimo  
> Melkor: Morgoth

**June 13th**

Today I am leaving for the Valinor Cellular Biology and Life Cycle Conference that will take place in Tol Eressea, an island on the coast of Alqualonde. We will be staying there for 4 days.

The whole trip takes around 4 hours. First, we fly to Alqualonde and then we take a 1h ferry ride to the island. I can’t wait, I need a holiday. I hope I will be able to enjoy the beach and eat lots of Telerian food. 

Also, Mae is going!!

-

I just checked into the hotel, I will be sharing a room with Turukano. Eleven of us came from BIST. Four from Feanor’s lab; Maedhros, Curufin, Maglor and Feanor himself. Three from my lab, Nolofinwe, Turukano and me. And four from Finarfin’s, Galadriel, Aegnor, Finrod and Finarfin.

-

Eight of us went to walk around the island. Feanor, Finarfin and Nolofinwe didn’t join, they had a dinner planned with the Ainur Association.

Tol Eressea is beautiful. White houses covered in pink, mauve, and red bougainvillea petals line narrow cobbled streets. We enjoyed walking down the tiny streets all the way to the harbour. Cafes were bustling with life, their terraces filled with locals sipping tea and playing cards. After looking around the harbour and visiting some shops, we went to the beach. There are no sandy beaches here, instead the coast is lined with hidden little coves only accessible by foot. The beach was a mix of sand and fine pebbles, the water was a crystal clear turquoise and pine trees provided shade. I was certainly charmed by the beauty of it all.

  
  


**June 14th**

**Day 1 of the congress**

Oh Elbereth I don’t know how I was able to get up today. I feel like I am going to be sick any moment… I should have stayed away from those blue shots… I will never make it to the first lecture that starts in 15 minutes. I need an aspirin.

-

I am feeling much better now that I had a cup of tea and some breakfast. In the end I didn’t go to the first lecture. I have a few minutes to kill before the next one so I will write about what happened yesterday.

Last night we went to a dinner organized by the congress. The food was amazing by the way. The table was flowing with plates full of flat bread, olive oil, fruits, cheeses, wines, dips, etc… Everything was delicious, there were so many new flavors, and the seafood was divine!

I digress… back to the dinner...

The dinner was actually a welcome reception for the congress attendees. It was in a restaurant overlooking the sea and we first had some drinks by the beach. As soon as I arrived I spotted Mae who was talking with Curufin and Aegnor so I joined them.

As people entered the hall, I spotted a woman wearing a short black dress, she had pale skin and long dark hair. When she got closer I could see that she was wearing dark eyeliner, black lipstick and had her lips pierced. The piercing consisted of two silver rings placed right next to each other, on either side of her lower lip, near the corner of her mouth. 

She was exactly Arakano’s type and I knew that if he was here, he would have approached her immediately. He is impatient that way. So I thought I would tease him a bit and sent him a message saying that his perfect woman was at the congress and that he was missing out. It was my revenge for all the hours spent listening to him talking about Feanor’s hot goth intern that completely ignored him last year.

He immediately replied asking for a picture. I ignored his message but to my annoyance he kept sending texts every 2 minutes. Elbereth, I forgot how annoyingly persistent he can be.

After half an hour of ignoring Arakano’s constant messaging I gave in. Well, the two glasses of wine that I had helped a lot in that department.

She was surrounded by a group of people and was talking to someone. I was quite confident that she wouldn’t notice if I took a sneaky picture. So I pointed my phone in her direction, pressed the camera button and... my freaking flash went off!!! My phone betrayed me!!! 

At the flash of light everyone turned their head towards me. I tried to act as if I was taking a picture of the place but I was red as a tomato so I didn’t fool anyone...

Mae wouldn’t stop laughing after I told him what happened… So yeah, fuck you Arakano and your love for goth girls! 

After dinner, we (Mae, Maglor, Curufin, Turukano, Aegnor and me) went looking for a place to have a few drinks and ended up in this small neighbourhood bar called Heculo. The owner was an old guy that let us put whatever music we wanted and gave us free shots every time we ordered a drink.

Ugh… just thinking about those shots makes me want to throw up... I don’t know what kind of alcohol it was but it was bright blue.

After a few rounds of drinks and blue shots we were quite drunk. Curufin, who was the drunkest of us all, asked us to call him Curufin the Crafty because he was able to get us free shots every time we ordered a drink. Curufin had nothing to do with us getting free drinks but we still ordered a new round and toasted to his cunning... Yeah that’s how drunk we were...

We finished the night,  started the day, by going skinny dipping in the sea. I used the opportunity to unashamedly stare at Maedhros as he got out of the water.

Maedhros is perfection!

His body looks as if it is chiseled from marble. Broad shoulders, defined abs and pert ass. I was jealous of the drops of water caressing his skin as they slid down his back. I wanted to lick them away.

Luckily for me the water was cold, otherwise it would have been pretty obvious how much the view affected me.

That night I came up with a secret nickname for him, Maitimo.

Oh! The lecture is starting.

  
  
  


**June 15th**

**Day 2 of the congress**

Today at lunch, I joined Mae and his team. There is a rumor that Melkor, from the Ainur Institute of Cellular Medicine, might get the Nobel prize for the work he just submitted for publication. He is giving a lecture on the last day of the conference. I think all of the attendees will be there because his team has been very secretive about their research.

-

I have to write everything about what happened tonight before I can go to sleep. I wanted it to be recorded in as much detail as possible.

Okay... so... my secret nickname for Maedhros, Maitimo, is not so secret anymore... I got super drunk  _ again  _ last night and blurted out everything to him. Which in the end was a good thing, but let me start from the beginning...

We ended up going to Heculo after dinner because Aegnor wanted to take Finrod and Galadriel as they didn’t join the previous night. Of course we ended up getting hammered on blue shots  _ again _ .

The biggest surprise of the night was Finrod. I had never seen him so drunk, he was the life of the party. First, he decided that he was in charge of the music and well… It was like we were in a bad party from the 90’s. He danced shirtless all night and at one point he even laid down on the floor and did the worm dance move. It was hilarious!! I am sure he will be super sore tomorrow.

Around 2 am the bar owner decided to show us some traditional telerian folk dances. He made everyone get in a circle formation, with their hands placed on their neighbor’s shoulders, and move at the beat of the music. I was too tired so I moved towards the edge of the dance floor and rested against the wall, watching the others dance.

Mae came by my side and we started talking. Somehow we came to the subject of last night’s skinny dipping. He said he quite liked swimming at night and I said that it had been a great way to sober up. Then I asked him if he worked out, at this, a slow grin spread across his face.

That grin did things to me and the next moment I was blurting out all sorts of things. That he was a beautiful creature, that I had been mesmerized by how perfect his body was, that it had been a pleasure to watch him get out of the water and that his name should be Maitimo instead of Maedhros. 

He laughed and leaned against me, his lips dangerously close to my ear. I could feel his breath tickling the hairs on my neck. I felt like a swarm of bees got loose in my stomach when he whispered that he wouldn’t mind  _ me  _ calling him that. I took a sharp breath, moved my lips towards his ear and said ‘maybe I will’. Then I moved my head closer to his, our lips were inches apart... I was about to kiss him… 

Then Mae was suddenly jerked away from me and pulled into the circle of dancers by a very grumpy looking Maglor.

I could have killed him!!

Now I will never know if it was just Mae being drunk or if he’s into me...

  
  
  


**June 16th**

**Day 3 of the congress**

Seriously I am hungover  _ again _ … these congresses are like 70% alcohol, 20% headaches and 10% learning.

-

I am getting ready for dinner and wow... I still can’t believe what happened during Melkor’s presentation… 

We arrived quite early to have good seats. Which was a good call because the room filled up super fast and a lot of people had to stand up. 

I was able to get a seat next to Mae after pushing Maglor out of the way. The look he gave me ha! It was my revenge for interrupting what I had going on with Mae last night.

So anyway, the lecture started and Melkor talked about his research on silima cells and how he had been able to identify the molecules generating radiance… which sounded exactly like Feanor’s project ‘Silmaril’...

At this, Maedhros cursed and exchanged concerned looks with the other feanorians. I scanned the crowd looking for Feanor... the look on his face… He looked livid!

At the end of the presentation, Feanor stands up and starts yelling insults at Melkor. He calls him Morgoth and claims that he is nothing but a thief that stole his work.

It caused a huge mess, people started yelling, siding with one or the other...

In the end the feanorians dragged their supervisor out of the room while Melkor stood laughing on the stage.

Oh, I am late for dinner!

  
  
  


**June 17th**

What a night, what a night!

First of all, I am stranded on this island, with a black eye and… surprise!... a massive hangover. We were supposed to leave at 11am today but Feanor burned all the ferries. They told us the nearest functioning boat will take a few days to come so we have no choice but to wait.

I should probably start my story from the beginning...

Last night, I went to dinner and asked Maedhros how Feanor was doing. He said they had given him some tranquilizers and that he felt better and might even come to the restaurant.

Then, I asked what the deal was between him and Melkor. It turns out that years ago, after publishing his work on Palantiri cells, Feanor was approached by him to start a collaboration. Feanor refused but Melkor kept insisting for several years. After a while, the offers just stopped.

Last year though, they found out that one of their summer interns had stolen some cells and copied most of their data. They didn’t think much about it because they were the only lab working on silima cells. But yesterday they learned that the intern, Ungoliant, was now a PhD student at Melkor’s Lab and the first author in the paper they just submitted for publication. It seems like Feanor was right and Melkor, or should I say Morgoth, really stole his research.

By the way that Ungoliant was the goth chick from the first day… I won’t judge Arakano’s taste in women...

After that, Feanor came to the restaurant, sat next to my boss and started draining wine bottle after wine bottle. We didn’t think much of it and went to have drinks at Heculo.

At 3 am, the seven of us left the bar, we lost Finrod at some point, and came across Feanor and Nolofinwe as we made our way to the beach for our usual morning swim. They were having a heated discussion with a dozen Teleri in front of the Ferry terminal. As we get closer, we see Feanor hitting a Teleri in the face, then the whole thing turns into a huge fight.

My memory is blurry because I was very drunk. But I remember hitting someone, pushing someone into the sea and getting hit on the face. Well the last one is not really a memory but something I deducted having woken up with a black eye… Anyway the last thing I remember is being dragged away by Turukano and running in the streets of Tol Eressea. 

When I woke up this morning I was laying on the sand, my head on Turukanos’ leg. Galadriel and Aegnor were sitting next to us talking hurriedly. As I got up, I saw a huge column of black smoke rising from the shore of Alqualonde. I asked what was going on but they had no idea, so we decided to wake up Turukano and head to the hotel to get changed and ready for our trip back home.

When we entered the hotel, the reception was full with congress attendees. We ran into Finarfin who explained that Feanor, Maedhros, Maglor and Curufin had taken the 5 am ferry back to Alqualonde and then proceeded to burn all the boats in the ferry terminal. 

My stomach dropped, I couldn’t believe it! I took out my phone to call Maedhros but the screen was completely shattered and it wouldn’t turn on. I guess it broke during the drunken fight.

So here I am, stranded on a beautiful island with a massive headache, a black eye and wondering what the hell Maedhros was thinking.


End file.
